Cannes Diary: 20142 of 13
Cannes Diary, Review Catch Up: Director Bennett Miller hits a solid triple with this film of madness, power, pride, shame, and wrestling, punctuated by a dead-eyed, notable performance by Steve Carell, as the pusillanimous, insane John du Pont, heir to the du Pont chemical fortune.
But Miller's also been blessed with the performances of Channing Tatum as hulking, simple wrestler Mark Schultz and Mark Ruffalo as Mark's older, smarter brother, David, who is also a wrestler.
The siblings are recruited by John du Pont to help him establish his Foxcatcher wrestling facility in Pennsylvania in the mid '80s with the goal of getting one of their athletes on the U.S. wrestling team in the 1988 Olympics.
What the brothers quickly realize is that du Pont is an utterly broken individual, one desperately trying to buy some respect or at least trying to impress his mother (played with icy, shriveled fierceness by Vanessa Redgrave), though she sees him for what he truly is, half a man.
To make up for his shortcomings du Pont coerces Mark Schultz into addressing him as "Eagle" or "Golden Eagle" and, embarrassingly, tries to inject himself into the facility's regimen as a coach. He tries to show chagrined wrestlers moves that worked for him though he clearly has no athletic ability at all.
What evolves is a simmering drama about a war of wills between the needy, loathsome du Pont and the resentful Mark, ending in Dave becoming terrible collateral damage.
Miller's somber, but never slow film, makes several trenchant points about the gulf between those who are athletes and those who admire them and, conversely, those are extremely wealthy and those who covet that wealth or at least the access it provides. 8.4/10
But Miller's also been blessed with the performances of Channing Tatum as hulking, simple wrestler Mark Schultz and Mark Ruffalo as Mark's older, smarter brother, David, who is also a wrestler.
The siblings are recruited by John du Pont to help him establish his Foxcatcher wrestling facility in Pennsylvania in the mid '80s with the goal of getting one of their athletes on the U.S. wrestling team in the 1988 Olympics.
What the brothers quickly realize is that du Pont is an utterly broken individual, one desperately trying to buy some respect or at least trying to impress his mother (played with icy, shriveled fierceness by Vanessa Redgrave), though she sees him for what he truly is, half a man.
To make up for his shortcomings du Pont coerces Mark Schultz into addressing him as "Eagle" or "Golden Eagle" and, embarrassingly, tries to inject himself into the facility's regimen as a coach. He tries to show chagrined wrestlers moves that worked for him though he clearly has no athletic ability at all.
What evolves is a simmering drama about a war of wills between the needy, loathsome du Pont and the resentful Mark, ending in Dave becoming terrible collateral damage.
Miller's somber, but never slow film, makes several trenchant points about the gulf between those who are athletes and those who admire them and, conversely, those are extremely wealthy and those who covet that wealth or at least the access it provides. 8.4/10
TitlesFoxcatcher
LanguagesEnglish